Touchscreen supplier Wintek Corporation revealed on Thursday that its sales in November were up 74 percent month over month, an increase seen as a positive sign for sales of Apple's iOS devices that is expected to push its stock price higher and offset recent losses.

Analyst Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities believes Apple is Wintek's most important customer, and has interpreted the company's stronger-than-average November as a sign that iPhone 4S sales are particularly strong. He also believes Wintek's success is an indication that Apple is rebounding from apparently reduced iPad 2 build orders in October, a reduction said to be due to an excess of parts purchased by Apple in the previous quarter.

"We believe the data points at Apple's suppliers will begin to look more positive over the next week as monthly sales from Apple's suppliers are released and checks are consummated," White said.

"As such, we believe Apple's stock price will begin to reflect these data points and trade higher, especially given the selloff over the past few weeks."

White sees another catalyst for AAPL stock on the horizon in the forthcoming launch of the iPhone 4S in mainland China. Carrier China Unicom is expected to begin selling the iPhone 4S this month, following government regulatory approval of the device.

"We expect to see Apple fever on display throughout the country with long lines, stock outs and scuffles," he said. "In the coming months, we expect China Telecom... to be added to the iPhone for the first time."

He noted that China's 3G subscriber base reached 110 million in October, while total wireless subscribers are now nearly 952 million. In fact, market research firm Strategy Analytics recently announced that china is now the world's largest smartphone market, having surpassed the U.S.

Customers line up for the iPhone 4S at Apple's retail store in Hong Kong in November. Photo via Reuters/Times Live.

A total of 16 percent of Apple's sales in the September quarter came from Greater China alone. That amounted to $4.5 billion in revenue, representing a major 270 percent year over year increase.

For comparison, in fiscal year 2009, Greater China accounted for just 2 percent of Apple's total sales. Now, China is number two on Apple's list of top-revenue companies, and the Cupertino, Calif., company has begun placing additional investment there with new retail stores and more than 7,000 points of sale for the iPhone.

Let's not forget the free iPhone 3GS. Apple's carrier revenue sharing deals are hugely profitable, and now Apple has a free phone. Finally, there are iPhones at all significant price tiers: $0, $100, $200, $300, and $400. Nobody can undercut Apple's pricing now.

And the free 3GS runs the latest iOS 5, can access the App Store, iTunes Store, and iCloud, and acts as the entry level iOS stepping stone into Apple's iOS ecosystem. We'll see if the iPhone 4 takes the 3GS' place as the "free iPhone" next year. My guess is that it will.

[...] Now, China is number two on Apple's list of top-revenue companies, [...]

Amazing that the PRC is a Communist state yet in many ways its people are bourgeois status-seekers
like those of any decadent Western country. Almost counter-revolutionary.

Having said that, a strong central government is the only way to hold the mainland together.
The country is far from being a monoculture, and there might be civil war without heavy-handed
control. There is social unrest, ethnic rioting, and the government has increased their domestic
security budget by nearly 14% this year. Not exactly a "worker's paradise."

Analyst Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities believes Apple is Wintek's most important customer, and has interpreted the company's stronger-than-average November as a sign that iPhone 4S sales are particularly strong. He also believes Wintek's success is an indication that Apple is rebounding from apparently reduced iPad 2 build orders in October, a reduction said to be due to an excess of parts purchased by Apple in the previous quarter.

I have recently come to realize that these "Analyists" Must all live in a vacuum and not ever read real world news. comments from the above quote like "a sign that iPhone 4S sales are particularly strong" Does he read? The 4S sells out everywhere they go, Three week waits now for one? And quotes like "Apple is rebounding from apparently reduced iPad 2 build orders in October" This is old news, but analysts just keep rehashing the same old crap, then the stock market punishes apple for no other reason than some analyst said there reducing orders because iPhone 4S's are not selling very well and he was quoting some tiawanese paper that said so (a paper that is habitually getting the news wrong more than right).